THE Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has stressed the importance of product development among micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the province, especially amid the upcoming 33rd Negros Trade Fair.
Mae Buaron, senior trade and industry development specialist of DTI-Negros Occidental, said one of the tools for marketing is product development, thus, the agency has been consistently providing development interventions for local producers.
Buaron said the DTI, through its Otop (One-town, one-product) Next Generation program, has trained 45 Negrense entrepreneurs on product development in Bacolod City last week.
The participants coming from different sectors like garments, food, bamboo, furniture, and gift, decors and housewares (GDH) forms part of the 160 recipients in Western Visayas.
“Product development is a continuous activity for entrepreneurs. The training was conducted prior to the Negros Trade Fair in order to further prepare them for the longest-running provincial trade fair in the country,” she added.
The 33rd Negros Trade Fair will be held at the Glorietta Activity Center in Makati City on September 25 to 30.
This year’s theme is "Sweet Talk: Sugar and Spice, Awesome and Nice."
The Association of Negros Producers (ANP), the organizer of the event, earlier said the upcoming trade fair will hype up the province’s sugar industry, particularly its story that has positively influenced the lifestyle of Negrenses.
Buaron stressed that every time buyers come to the Negros Trade Fair they would ask “what is new” and they would turn their back if producers don’t have something to offer.
“So that is one instrument that makes the trade fair in Metro Manila successful. We always have new products to offer to our buyers,” she said, stressing that “innovation is vital amid emergence product copying nowadays.”
The DTI official pointed out that even products with a trademark can already be copied even by just changing the color or a little of the design.
Thus, product development should not be taken for granted, Buaron said, as she urged local MSMEs to keep on innovating.
Moreover, she said that in Negros Occidental, producers can right away market test the product so they can immediately determine whether the design is marketable or not.
“Also, it is good that our producers are very active in joining trade fairs as continuous exposure would result to better products,” Buaron said, adding that “we still have time to further improve our products prior to the trade fair.”